The area’s state lawmakers have agreed to sponsor legislation that may help draw industry to the defunct Avtex fibers plant, the Industrial Redevelopment committee was told Tuesday.

Brian Shull, director of the Front Royal-Warren County Industrial Development Authority, told the committee that Delegates Jerry M. Wood, D-Warrenton, and Raymond R. "Andy" Guest Jr., R-Warren County, will seek to amend state law to create more "enterprise zones."

State law only allows 19 of the zones, areas to which localities can locate, and the 19^th is being formed in Richmond.

Although there isn’t a "magic number," Shull said an additional six zones, which would bring the number to 25, seems logical.

Wood said he will contact the Division of Legislative Services in Richmond and have the bill drafted in advance so officials on the redevelopment committee can review it and he can get it filed as soon as possible.

Also at Tuesday’s committee meeting, Bill Barnett, the group’s vice chairman, said he is gathering information from different environmental companies on how much it would cost to train local people to work as trainers for required health and safety classes that those involved in the eventual cleanup of the plant site will need.

There are no written standards for hazardous material site cleanups, which is complicating matters, he said, the trainers will need about 80 hours of training to be certified to teach others, he said.

Having a crew of trainers ready to teach others will make it easier for cleanup contractors to hire local people, Barnett said. "We want to make it very easy to do business in Warren county."

Also, town Planner Kimberly P. Fogle said the town is studying its parks and recreation plans and one of the sites under consideration is a narrow strip of land of about five acres across Kerfoot Avenue from the Ed Stump playground, a five-acre parcel the town leases from Avtex.

If the current playground and the larger tract that surrounds it, which has rail frontage, are sold off as an industrial tract, that would leave the town with no park in one of its highest density areas, she said.